Archive for the ‘From the web’ Category

Here’s a TED talk about symbols painted on cave walls by our ancient ancestors. Genevieve von Petzinger argues that before we had language humans communicated with symbols like these. Why are these 32 symbols found in caves all over Europe | Genevieve von Petzinger Here’s an article from The Atlantic about how they’ve recently found […]

Archaelogists were surprised to find a giant species of dinosaur that lived in the Triassic period. Previously it was thought that the first giants lived millions of years later in the Jurassic. This newly discovered species, called “First Giant,” was found in Argentina. Here’s the article from Live Science: Discovery of ‘First Giant’ Dinosaur Is […]

Koko, the gorilla who learned sign language, has passed away at the age of 46. During her life through books and videos she was able to reach out to people and inform them about gorillas — how smart they are, how they have emotions, and how they can be funny. She lived at a place […]

This is a comic strip by Doug Savage that’s drawn on one or more post-it notes. Many of the characters in the strips are chickens. It’s often wryly humorous. Here’s the main page: Savage Chickens Here’s one with a Star Wars theme: My Only Hope He has a bunch about meetings. I like this one: […]

Of all the scary things happening in the US one of the scariest is the possibility that the Supreme Court will be skewed right wing for decades once Donald Trump’s nominee gets in. People are going to need to call their congressperson to stop that from happening. Here’s an article by E.J. Dionne Jr. from the […]

Here are a couple of YouTube channels I’ve been watching a bunch of. Super Easy, Barely an Inconvenience These are imagined pitch meetings between a writer and a producer, both played by Ryan George. They are hilarious, but they do point out big flaws in the movie so you might not want to watch the […]

All of the theories about how the Great Pyramid was built had problems with them. Until Jean-Pierre Houdin, a French architect, came up with his internal ramp theory. He suggests that blocks were hauled up a ramp that was — and still is — inside the pyramid. It makes perfect sense, and it’s also consistent […]

“Carpool Karaoke” is a segment on “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” In it Corden drives around with a singer and they sing some of his or her songs together. Corden has a good voice and always knows all the words. In this episode he drives around Liverpool with Paul McCartney. McCartney visits the […]

One of the most important things we need to do in the 21st century is get rid of nuclear weapons. The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Here is the text of the speech given when that award was handed out: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear […]

What if George Lucas had never made Star Wars in 1977? That’s the intriguing premise of this article by Kevin Lincoln on Polygon: What if Star Wars never happened? A few tidbits: George Lucas would have filmed Apocalypse Now, Harrison Ford wouldn’t have become an actor, Jack Nicholson would have starred in Blade Runner, and […]